


Shattered

by TehUltimateAZZHOLE



Category: Glass (2019), Split (2016), Unbreakable (2000)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Death, Gen, Glass (2019) Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-20
Updated: 2019-04-20
Packaged: 2020-01-20 14:43:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18527170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TehUltimateAZZHOLE/pseuds/TehUltimateAZZHOLE
Summary: "Tell me the truth, did I almost convince you that you were an ordinary man?"With a few brief seconds, anything can change. People die. Heroes rise. Masquerades fall.





	Shattered

David Dunn's limbs were cold and numb and he couldn't stop coughing the water out of his lungs. Darkness approached at the corners of his vision as he coughed, on the verge of vomiting. He remembered feeling like this once when he nearly drowned in that pool as a kid. The cold fingers of death running along his spine.

David resolved to remain still and let the heat come back to his body. It had happened a couple of times over the years, nature overcoming him, and he had learned that giving a few minutes would work. The ice in his veins would leave and he would be able to stand up and chase Kevin. If the police took him into custody, he could take them. Hurting a couple of cops would leave some shreds of remorse, but it was a small price to pay when millions of people's lives were at stake.

And so, David lay still and rested. For a few moments, all was quiet, and then the crack of a gunshot filled the air. David raised his head but didn't get the chance to see where the shot came from before he felt a hand grab him by his hood and drag him across the mud. David's limbs, still numb, slid off the curb and then he saw what his supposed-rescuer's destination.

A watery pothole, only slightly larger than his head.

The man dunked David's head several times. David tried to thrash but his arms were noodles and they had no strength whatsoever. The ice beneath his skin resurged along his face and lungs caught fire and began suffocating him. Water poured down his throat and suddenly he felt very tired and dizzy and he wanted Audrey to come and save him from this nightmare. 

"David, take my hand!"

When his head was pulled to the surface, Dr. Staple knelt in front of him and held out her hand. David's arms didn't feel numb so he took them without thinking and then the vision hit him and he knew that she would not save him.

"Tell me, did I almost convince you that you were an ordinary man," she asked.

David did not respond, he would not give her the satisfaction. Petty as it may be, he would use her need to be vindicated and make her live with the unanswered question. Her justifications meant nothing to him. 

"DAD! DAD!"

Joseph's voice echoed through the lot and David only managed a glance at his son before his head was dunked into the puddle. Joseph was being restrained by two SWAT officers, fighting in vain to save his father. Joseph was witnessing the Philly PD murder his father right before his eyes.

Witness. Joseph was a witness. What would stop them from killing him too?

David felt his arms and legs again and so he squeezed the officer's wrist and felt it snap like a twig. The man let go of him and backed away, yelling in pain. David lifted his head out of the water and felt oxygen return to him. 

The officer rushed him again and David crawled backward in retreat from him. David lashed out with a kick to the man's kneecap and heard the joint pop out of place as his attacker stalked forward. He collapsed, his screams resonating throughout the parking lot.

David stood up and felt the dizziness that accompanied his experiences with water. His pace was unsteady and his balance was off, but it retreated as he approached the officers holding Joseph. Both men let go of Joseph as they turned to face him and didn't bother to observe Joseph reach into his jacket pocket and pull out a police baton. He snapped it open and hit the officer on David's left on the back of the head.

David grappled with the other man, pulling him into a hockey clinch and throwing an uppercut into the man's armored torso. The man gasped in pain and doubled over in pain. David raised his hand over his head and smashed him with a hammer fist to the back of the neck. Bones cracked and the man collapsed without movement. David panted and felt fatigue setting in. The adrenaline was subsiding and the numbness returned to his face. He looked at Joseph.

"Take Mrs. Price and the girl and run."

"Dad, I'm not-"

"Joseph, they'll kill you! All of you are witnesses. They can't have any loose ends."

Joseph began to tear up and swallowed and David felt his heart drop. This was the end. David took his son's shoulders and hugged him.

"I'm proud of you. Your mom was too."

"It isn't supposed to end like this, dad."

Goddamn, those comic books. Elijah's obsession had been passed on to his son whether he liked it or not. Formula's like that, they didn't equate to what happens in the real world.

"Everything has to end, Joseph. Now, take them and run. Go."

* * *

When Joseph took Mrs. Price and Casey and fled, David dived into the collection of SWAT officers that fired upon him with AR-15 rifles and Mossberg shotguns. He didn't pull his punches and called upon every trick he'd ever learned as a security guard and from the MMA instructors Joseph had set him up with. He punched and kicked and crushed and slammed every man in his way.

He lifted one man above his head and threw him into a couple of his colleagues before spinning and driving an elbow into another officer's facemask. The bones in the man's face popped and the man fell unconscious as David shoved another man to the ground and kneed him in the face. He kept fighting until no man was left to fight. Dr. Staple stood at the bottom of the entrance, watching him with a haunted expression on her face. Everyone else in the courtyard and the parking lot was either incapacitated or dead.

Near the van, Elijah Price lay on the pavement and did not move. David had no doubts that the punch he took from the Beast had crushed his ribs and sternum. There was no coming back from that, especially for someone with brittle bones. Far off in the grass, a shirtless man lay in a pool of blood. Kevin Wendell Crumb, The Horde, whatever you called him, was dead. David didn't see how he died, but he imagined that the gunshot he heard earlier had something to do with it.

David looked around the pile of bodies that surrounded him. They wore Philly PD uniforms, but were they actual cops? Those people he saw in Staple's memory, did they have people like that in the government? The military? 

He couldn't go back to Joseph, this wouldn't end at the hospital. Staple and whoever she worked for would keep coming for him, they would kill whoever stood in their way if it meant getting to him. No, he couldn't put Joseph in danger. Not after this.

He walked toward Dr. Staple and stopped about ten feet away from her. He didn't need to say anything, his death glare was enough.

"I did what I had to David, you have to understand that."

David said nothing.

"Men like you, Elijah and Kevin, do you know what happens when you all collide? People die, David. You saw Elijah did, what Kevin did. Look at what you've done."

David said nothing.

"Superheroes and villains, they're far beyond anything normal people can deal with. Gods among men? That isn't fair in the real world, David. It's too much of a risk."

David turned and looked at all the bodies littered around them. Some deserved it and some didn't. But all of it could have been avoided. He turned back to Dr. Staple.

"You won't hear from me again. But if you come after Joseph, Elijah's mother or the girl, I'll come for you."

Dr. Ellie Staple said nothing as he walked away.

* * *

A few days later, David sat in 30th Street Station with a ticket to New York in his hand. His train would leave in a half-hour by way of Amtrak. Funny, he thought, it starts and ends on a train.

He had tossed his poncho in the trash after returning to the store. Joseph was still there with the women and they all made arrangements. Casey would go home to her foster parents, Mrs. Price would take a train to Atlanta, and Joseph would stay in town to close down the store. After that, he would follow David to New York.

The battle at the hospital had made the news and probably would continue to do so in the foreseeable future. The press talked about the breakout of three dangerous mental patients and how one of them had taken an AR-15 after overpowering a police officer on the premises. The resulting shootout killed two patients and several police officers along with two orderlies and five security officers. The third patient had been recaptured, his identity withheld due to privacy concerns from the suspects' families. Staple had spun quite the tale.

David had noticed that he had picked up some tails in the days following his departure from the hospital. He had a pretty good idea who they worked for and what their job was. But, they kept their distance and eventually backed off when David made it clear that they were not to come near his son. He was still sure they were watching him, just using a better watcher this time around. They would probably watch him for the rest of his life. If it meant that they left everyone else alone, David could live with it.

David's phone pinged, and he pulled it out of his pocket. It was a text from Joseph. A video.

David hit play and watched himself throw the Beast against the van and skid it sideways. He watched himself push a group of riot cops into a shipping container and how the Beast killed and ate the other group of men. He watched himself shrug off twelve-gauge slugs and shatter the facemask of a SWAT officer with a police baton.

When the video ended, David leaned forward and rubbed his eyes. Who leaked the footage? Was there more of the video that Joseph didn't show him? God, they would definitely come for him now.

The woman sitting next to him, Auburn hair and pretty like Audrey, looked at her phone when it pinged and gasped. She turned a little and David saw the video he just finished. Dear God, it had gone viral.

David heard more phone pings all around him. The world knew what had happened at the hospital. They knew who he was. 

They knew who Staple was.

David stood up and hefted his bag onto his shoulder. He walked out of the exit and tossed the ticket into the trash. He took an Uber home and opened the closet door immediately after entering the house. 

His spare poncho hung from the hook as it always did. He hadn't worn it in a long time, not since the night Audrey passed. Those memories were a bitter pill to swallow, but it was time to put it behind him.

That night, The Overseer went hunting.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I love every installment of the Unbreakable trilogy, even Glass. However, I was kind of distraught at the lack of impact David Dunn's death seemed to have. I love the character, much more than the Beast and Mr. Glass, because he made superheroes feel relatable again. So, I decided to give my own spin on the ending. I understand Shyamalan's reasoning behind the ending, but I feel it lacked a certain amount of quality the rest of the movie seemed to contain. In my mind, this is me trying to rectify it, in a way.


End file.
